( 58 ) 

 NOTES ON BREEDING-HABITS OF AVOCETS. 



MARY G. S. BEST. 



(Plate 2.) 



In the middle of May, 1914, I spent a few days in a 

 duck-decoy situated on one of the saltmarshes in the 

 west of Holland. I found the nesting-season in full 



AVOCET APPROACHING NEST. 

 {Photographed by Miss M. G. S. Best.) 



swing when I arrived. Only a few of the earher broods 

 had hatched off and of these there were very few sur- 

 Advors, as the weather for a month previously having 

 been unusually dry, the mud was too hard for the soft 

 bills of the young birds, and they had died of starva- 

 tion : also, the keeper said, the water in the ditches 

 and decoy-pond was too salt for the httle birds, as 

 there had been no rain for some time. In the decoy we 

 found several duckHngs which appeared to have died 



